Weighty matters at Charleville Show for the ordinary farmer

Charleville Show hasn’t lost sight of you and me, the ordinary farmer who likes certain things when he goes to an agricultural show.

This has to be welcomed, when many shows seem to be more anxious to cater for the day tripper from the suburbs, a fellow in flip flops pushing a buggy, while slurping a cappuccino.

Charleville has plenty for the cappuccino slurper, but thankfully there is also a lot on offer to satisfy you and me.

A farmer friend who went to Charleville with me on Saturday was delighted with the machinery and equipment on display.

The exhibitors weren’t just showing off, displaying their most high-powered machine. At Charleville, he was able to view practical machinery and equipment that could be used on a regular farm.

For example, I called to the O’Donovan Engineering stand to view the digital livestock weighing.

I met Dermot O’Donovan and he told me all about the advances that have been made in the area of cattle and sheep weighing.

“We have been selling weighing equipment with the last 25 years and as you might expect, over the years, there have been big developments in this electronics side of things.”

“At the moment a standard system is the ‘Easy Way 5.’ To begin, you fix an aluminium platform into your crush and, once operational, your animal walks on it, and the weight is automatically stabilised.

"What this means is the correct weight of your animal comes up on screen within two and a half seconds, regardless of how jumpy or jittery the animal happens to be.

“If you want to go up a level, we have the ‘Easy Way 7,’ with this system you enter in the tag number of the animal being weighed and the next time you weigh the animal you will be able to see the weight gain achieved over the period.

“Then you can go up to the 5000 series, and here you can input a lot more information about the animal, and through wi-fi, this information can be fed to your iPhone, where it can be stored.”

The horse and pony element to Charleville Show is enormous, on Saturday I met Eleanor Fleming who is honorary secretary of the show, and she spoke to me about the bloodstock element.

“From amateurs, those who basically do it for fun, to those who are very well known countrywide at horse and pony events, we try to cater for all. Today in show jumping we have two Grand Prixs, one sponsored by FBD and the other sponsored by Red Mills.

"And on Sunday we have another sponsored by our local SuperValu, Dick’s SuperValu in Charleville. These are big show jumping classes, but there are competitions or classes for everyone.

Also today, we are concentrating on the pony show classes, we have 50 classes for ponies in our four rings. Tomorrow it will be the turn of the horses, where we are fortunate to have Horse Sport Ireland supporting us in the Broodmare Championship.

“Everybody wants to win in Charleville. They say if you can win in Charleville, you can win in Dublin.”

The cattle next, and I will start with the under-12 beef handler competition. In Charleville on Saturday, this was won by 11-year-old Maeve Curtin from Clarina, Co Limerick. Maeve has been showing cattle at agricultural events for years, with Charleville Show on Saturday being her first major victory. Her sister, Orla, won here in the under-16 handling event last year. The Limousin heifer shown by Maeve on Saturday came from the Ardnacrusha herd of well known exhibiter Donal Maloney.

And the under-16 beef young handlers competition went to 15-year-old Shannon Kinahan from Kilfinane, Co Limerick. Shannon is on a bit of a roll this year, having already won the young handlers competitions in Midleton Show and the Cork Summer Show.

The Limousin bull calf that Shannon had on Saturday came from the herd of Noel Fennessy, Castleconnell, Co Limerick.

Later on in the day, I was delighted to see Matt Goulding’s Hereford heifer win the overall Female Hereford title, because I had chosen her myself as a champion, while sitting on the side lines chewing a tasty burger. There’s hope for me yet.

After Matt’s heifer, Duchess 548, had won, I had a quick word with him.

“It’s always great to win in Charleville. It’s one of the biggest shows, and one of the best shows to bring cattle. There is always a great response from the crowd and this makes showing cattle all the more enjoyable,” said Matt, who hails from Ballyduff, Co Kerry.

The overall beef championship at Charleville show went to a six-year-old Limousin cow, Roundhill E-Girofiee, owned by Tim Corridan, Fedamore, Co Limerick. This animal is no stranger to success, having tasted it in Tullamore, winning the All-Ireland junior heifer award back in 2011. She could well be back in Tullamore this year.

Finally, there was supposed to be a Saturday discussion on the abolition of the milk quota, but most of us got too engrossed in the beef and dairy competitions, and the talk never took off.

No great surprise, because atCharleville Show, there is simply no time for talk, there is too much to see.

Champion exhibitors included the following.

BEEF

Overall champion of show:

Timothy Corridan’s Roundhill E-Girofiee 1164 (Limousin). Reserve: William R. Gubbins (Charolais cross).

Overall calf champion:

John McInerney. Reserve: Dr Michael Sheahan (Aberdeen Angus).

Beef young stockperson:

Shanon Kinahan. 2nd Rachel Moloney.

Limousin male:

Timothy Corridan. Reserve: Donal Moloney.

Belgian Blue male (and reserve):

David Pearson.

Belgian Blue female :

Richard Stanley. Reserve: David Pearson.

Charolais male:

Bobby O’Connell. Reserve: Michael O’Connor.

Charolais female:

Richard Hackett. Reserve: John Neenan.

Simmental male:

William Cotter. Reserve: Gordon and Susan Salter.

Simmental female:

Peter and Marian O’Connell. Reserve: Gordon and Susan Salter.

Aberdeen Angus male:

Albert De Cogan. Reserve: Matthew Goulding.

Aberdeen Angus female:

Dr Michael Sheahan. Reserve: Dr Michael Sheahan.

Hereford male:

Matthew Goulding. Reserve: Tom Roycroft.

Hereford female:

Matthew Goulding.

Shorthorn female :

Denis O’Sullivan. Reserve: Maire McNamara.

Commercial male:

Paul Devitt. Reserve: Eamon O’Donovan.

Commercial female:

Billy Gubbins. Reserve: Andrew and Catherine McCarthy.

DAIRY

Jersey champion:

Ricky Barrett. Reserve: Pat Ahern.

All-Ireland junior pedigree Friesian second calver:

Paul Coffey. Reserve: Ricky Barrett.

Maverick pedigree friesian senior cow in milk:

David & Micheal O’Sullivan. Reserve: Conor Lynch.

Best Udder Award:

Ricky Barrett.

Best Exhibitor Bred:

Pat Carey.

Best group of three:

Mike McNamara. Reserve: Pat Ahern

PONIES

Hunter champion:

Emer Cunneen

Intermediate champion:

Jodie Moran. Reserve: Sean McKenna

Supreme champion:

Emer Cunnen. Reserve: Liam Ruttle.

Champion Connemara pony:

Martin O’ Sullivan. Reserve: Kieran Leyden.

Horse Sport Ireland youngstock championship:

Michael Calnan. Reserve: Michael J Galvin

Breeding and young stock championship:

Dermot Horgan.

Welsh pony champion:

Brendon Laffan. Reserve: Michael Galvin.

HORSES

Young horse champion of show:

Jane Scully,. Reserve: PJ Lehane.

Champion mare and foal:

PJ Lehane.

Champion hunter of show:

Louise Lyons. Reserve: Liz Mitchell.

SHEEP

Suffolk:

Susan O’Keeffe. Reserve: Susan O’Keeffe.

Texel Champion:

Arthur & Patrick O’Keeffe. Reserve: Mary Gallagher.

Vendeen Champion:

Ena Nagle. Reserve: Conor & Cheryl O’Brien.

Charollais Champion:

Jim & Fram Jeffery. Reserve: Eddie & Paul O’Gorman.

ARTS AND CRAFTS

Adult most points:

Noreen Patterson.

Baking and preserves, Brudair Perpetual Cup:

Ann Moloney.

HORTICULTURE

Rose of show:

Breda Crowley.

Best dog in show:

Sharon Mackessy